Annotation: This tool kit, geared toward program facilitators and volunteer educators, provides methods for bringing the Breaking the Silence program to communities. The purpose of the program is to break the silence about mental illness in schools. The toolkit provides a background on Breaking the Silence, the rationale for mental illness education, information about how to organize and fund a local program, how to enlist and train volunteers, and materials documenting the success of Breaking the Silence. The program is intended for use in upper elementary, middle, and high school classrooms.

Annotation: These resources for clinicians involved in the care of pregnant and postpartum women include position papers, algorithms, toolkits, guidelines for treatment, screening tools, research on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, professional organizations, training and continuing education, books, and other resources. Information and peer support for pregnant and new moms with postpartum depression and other mental illnesses related to pregnancy and childbirth are also available from the website.

Annotation: This report synthesizes the activities of 10 primary care and behavioral health organizations with established integration programs in Massachusetts to identify success factors, barriers, challenges, and opportunities for change. Contents include a description of grantee organizations followed by a description of findings related to how they defined success for their integration efforts, perceptions of the critical components of integrated programs, common barriers to integration, and measures used to assess programs. The evaluation framework, a list of the process and outcome data elements collected by grantees, and grantee profiles are appended.

Annotation: This report summarizes an environmental scan of practices and programs for addressing trauma and related behavioral health needs in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth. Contents include a summary of the scan scope and results, trauma-informed care and trauma-specific interventions, interventions focused on suicide prevention and substance use disorders, parenting interventions for youth and their guardians, aspirational frameworks, and common elements of programs addressing trauma and related behavioral health needs of AI/AN youth. The systematic database search methodology and summaries of interventions and evaluations are also provided.

Annotation: This policy brief discusses the unique rural challenges related to opioid use disorder and the experiences of families in crisis and recommendations for federal action. Topics include the opioid epidemic as a national problem with rural differentials, opioid abuse trends in rural communities, substance abuse and child welfare, the role of federal block grants, and barriers to treatment and services. Opportunities for creating a stronger treatment system for opioid use disorders are also addressed including the role of support services, care coordination and mental health workers to address current shortages in rural communities, increasing the availability of treatment programs, and research. A case study from Indiana is included.

Annotation: This report presents an analysis of children's population health needs and resources in Philadelphia. Contents include findings from statistical and spatial (mapping) analyses to better understand the effects of modifiable neighborhood characteristics on mental health and a proposed method for using population-level risk factors to assess service need and adequacy of community resources.

Annotation: This knowledge path aims to bridge the public health and mental health information needs of professionals on approaches to promoting optimal health and wellness for women of childbearing age who experience a mental, emotional, or behavioral heath condition. The resource covers topics relevant to health promotion and disease prevention for all women, and specifically for women with mental and behavioral health disorders. Topics include reproductive and maternal health, intentional injury, chronic conditions, healthy behaviors, and health disparities. Contents include websites, distance learning tools, reports, data and statistics, journal articles and other literature and research, and guides on related topics. A separate brief presents resources for women and their families. [Funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

Annotation: This brief is designed to help families find mental health care, services, and support and websites about emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges in kids and teens. A separate section presents websites about babies and young kids. Another lists websites for teens. [Funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau]

Annotation: This resource provides guidance to organizations on becoming a Medicaid provider of family and youth peer support. The resource focuses primarily on organizations operated by parents and caregivers of children, youth, and young adults affected by serious emotional, behavioral, and mental health challenges. Examples from three states (Arizona, Maryland, and Rhode Island) illustrate key aspects of the decision and process in becoming a Medicaid provider. Topics include the potential impact on the organization's mission, funding, service delivery environment, and advocacy role; how the structure and requirements of a state's Medicaid program may impact the delivery of services; working with state and local governments and provider systems; staffing considerations; and billing and rate-setting processes.

Annotation: This report focuses on mental health problems, co-occurring mental health problems and substance use disorder, and mental health service use among older adolescents ages 16-17 and young adults ages 18 to 25. The report provides a snapshot of mental health issues among older adolescents and young adults overall and by key issues for the transition into adulthood such as housing, employment, education, and insurance coverage.

Annotation: This report documents what is known to date about the return on investment, specifically cost savings, from the systems of care approach to funding services for children and youth who have serious mental health conditions. It includes findings from national, multi-site, and individual state and community evaluations.

Annotation: This bulletin examines suicidal thoughts and behaviors among 1,829 children and adolescents (ages 10 to 18) in the Northwestern Juvenile Project, a longitudinal study of children and adolescents detained at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center in Chicago, IL. Contents include a description of the study literature review and methods, and a discussion of the findings. Topics include hopelessness, thoughts about death and dying, thoughts about suicide, suicide plan, telling someone about suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and psychiatric disorders that may increase the odds of suicide attempts.

Annotation: This report provides an overview of mental health disorders with an emphasis on adolescent health. It describes the types of mental disorders; explains which types are most common among adolescents; and discusses risky behavior and other consequences associated with mental health disorders in youth. The paper also looks at variations in the risk of mental disorders across gender, socioeconomic status, and other variables; discusses forms of treatment and barriers to care; and describes strategies and approaches to help reduce mental disorders among adolescents.

Annotation: This information bulletin is intended to inform states about resources available to help them meet the needs of children under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment Program (EPSDT), specifically with respect to mental health and substance-use-disorder services. The bulletin provides information about mental illness in children and discusses screening, clinical guidelines, professional development and training, clinical quality reporting, and state initiatives.

Annotation: This report highlights key characteristics of effective school mental health (SMH) and the strategies that federal Safe Schools/Health Students (SS/HS) initiative grantees have used to build and sustain comprehensive mental health programs. The report discusses what effective, comprehensive SMH does, describes key features of effective SMH, discusses SS/HS, and provides a close look at 13 SS/HS sites, focusing on key successes and lessons learned.

Annotation: This report describes federal surveillance systems, surveys, and other information systems that measure prevalence of mental disorders and indicators of mental health among children in the United States and highlights selected national prevalence estimates. Topics include mental disorders (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder, autism spectrum disorders, mood and anxiety disorders), substance use disorders and substance use, and tic disorders (Tourette syndrome). Selected indicators of mental health, including mentally unhealthy days and suicide, are also assessed. Availability of state-based estimates is noted in the surveillance descriptions and tables.

Annotation: This document summarizes research on peer support for children and adolescents with significant mental health challenges, physical health challenges, or both. Topics include the benefits of family and youth peer support (FYPS), increased use of FYPS, families' roles, work force and sustainability, and areas needing further research.

Special Care Advocates in Dentistry. 2013. SAID professional modules. [no place]: Special Care Advocates in Dentistry, multiple items.

Annotation: This series of 15 modules is designed to help oral health professionals meet their clients’ special needs. Topics include intellectual disability; clinical concerns related to providing oral health care for clients with intellectual disability; Down syndrome; cerebral palsy; using sedation, dental restraints and positioning devices, and general anesthesia; oral manifestations in genetic syndromes; providing oral health care for people with mental illness in institutional and outpatient settings; treatment planning; preventive dentistry; providing services to people with disabilities who reside in the community; administrative issues in the practice of dentistry in institutional settings; and research needs and opportunities.

Contact: Special Care Advocates in Dentistry, Southern Association of Institutional Dentists, Web Site:http://saiddent.org Available from the website.

Maternal and Child Health Library

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number U02MC31613, MCH Advanced Education Policy, $3.5 M. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.